Each book that the book club read was aimed at one of the groups individual secrets that Alice seemed to know about. Granted, the motive was not very predictable (for me anyway), but I found myself cringing when we did find out the motive.

The Book Club by C.J. Cooper – Melanie’s reads The Book Club by C.J. Cooper – Melanie’s reads

Lucy has not long moved away from London to her quiet little cottage in a small Cotswold village with her small group of friends spending their time with coffee mornings, homemade biscuits and pub lunches where she is trying to start fresh and forget what happened to her. For example when faced with the murderer upstairs in her house and knowing she has come to hurt her; instead of leaving she choses to go upstairs and confront her? Zero character development (I didn’t even know what colour Lucy’s hair was until the end) it makes it really difficult to paint a picture of a character with zero description of their appearance from early on especially when there is five main characters.

The back of this book declares it to be ‘the most addictive psychological thriller you’ll read this year.

The Book Club By C. J. Cooper |The Works

Lucy always knows there’s something she doesn’t trust about Alice, but she can’t seem to quite put her finger on it. After a few months she appears to have settled in nicely and they regularly meet up, although sometimes not including her. Now this is where it gets really interesting when the book choices appear to be relevant to the club member’s secrets. There seemed to be a lot of fleshing out with stories/sub plots for the other characters which just seemed to be there for the sake of making up pages and they didn't really have any kind of influence on the final outcome between Alice and Lucy. Lucy has left her job after an affair with her boss (which she is still somewhat ashamed of), and is living in a village.We learn a lot about the friends Tom, Maggie and Rebecca, one by one their secrets are revealed, and you become invested in their stories, however there is never any follow through. We know from the get-go that Alice wants to destroy Lucy's life - the only mystery is what her motive actually is. It soon becomes clear to Lucy that Alice has sinister intentions as she begins to manipulate the group.